Mason Looks to Get Back on Track at GW

By Palmer Johnson

Your George Mason Patriots are coming off back-to-back tough losses to VCU and Richmond, and are looking to get a much-needed win against the 13-3 George Washington Revolutionaries, who are 2-1 in conference play.

The Revolutionaries are coached by former Mason and long-time Larrañaga assistant Chris Caputo, who’s in his second year there.

GW’s year has been headlined by fantastic freshmen play from Darren Buchanan, a redshirt freshman transfer forward from Virginia Tech, and Garrett Johnson, a double redshirt freshman transfer wing from Princeton who recently finished chemotherapy. Between those two, you have the likely rookie of the year with Johnson and second or third place with Buchannan. That’s a bright future if you can keep them around, which will be tough with Johnson.

Sidenote, GW is giving out scarves at the game that have both the Mason and GW logo on them, the one at the top of this article. It is wild to me to give something out that has your opponent’s logo on it.

George Washington by the Numbers

George Washington is the 174^th ranked team on KenPom, with the 152^nd offense and 227^th defense.

The Revs play at a very fast pace, with them having 72 possessions per game, 42^nd in the nation.

On offense, GW is very efficient at shooting, with them having an eFG of 43.5%, 36^th in the country, a 3-point rate of 38.7%, 16^th, and a 2-point rate of 52.2%, 114^th. They also get to the line a lot, shooting 37.8 free throws per 100 shots, 65^th. With those numbers, they should be elite on offense.

The problem is that the Revs turn the ball over 18.5% of the time, 242^nd in the country, and when they do happen to miss their shots, they are only getting the offensive rebound 25.9% of the time, which is 290^th.

GW gets a decent amount of their points from threes, with 33.5% of them coming from beyond the arc.

The Revs are hot from pretty much everywhere beyond the arc, but I guess their big men are great with their right and AWFUL with their left.

GW has tons of shooters, with James Bishop, Maximus Edward, who are their two main shot-takers, Garrett Johnson, and Jacoi Hutchinson all shooting 40% or better from three this season.

James Bishop takes 26.7% of the shots when he is on the floor and Maximus Edwards takes 26.1%, that’s a lot from both of them. Bishop is the A10 equivalent of Houston James Harden, where it seems like he either shoots it or passes it for an assist on every possession.

On defense, their metrics are similar in strength to their offense. GW gives up an eFG of only 45.8%, 33^rd in the country, three-point rate of 31.6%, 82^nd, and two-point rate of 44.8, 26^th. Most notable of all, the Revs only give up 20.7 free throws per 100 shots, which is 5^th in the nation.

Similar to their offense, the Revolutionaries struggle with turnovers, this time, forcing them, at only a 15.4% rate, 300^th in the country. They also struggle to get rebounds, with opponents getting 31.2% of their opportunities, 253^rd in the country.

GW blocks a lot of shots, 14.2% of them, 18^th in the country, which is likely due to Babatunde “Stretch” Akingbola, who has a block rate himself of 13.4%, 5^th in the country.

The Revs give up a lot of threes, with opponents getting 36% of their points from beyond the arc, 26^th in the country.

You can see exactly where Stretch sits. They must have some super-athlete guarding that right corner.

All of these percentages look awesome, but you may be wondering why they’re so lowly ranked. It’s because they had the 361^st hardest out-of-conference schedule.

George Washington Scouting Report (First Half vs. Davidson)

On offense, their main guy is James Bishop. Bishop is a guy who, on some possessions, will hold it for a really, really long time, and then make a tough shot that he probably shouldn’t have taken. He can help break their opponents’ zones since he can hit threes from deeper than they’re willing to cover.

Maximus Edwards can also hit from super deep.

The Revs want to get down the court fast and shoot the first good shot they see. Garrett Johnson sprinted down in transition, got a little bit of space, and hit a three. They’ll shoot as soon as they’re open, they’re not looking for a better shot.

Davidson went into a soft 2-1-2 press, GW had to make a decent amount of passes to get it across.

Freshman Trey Autry looks uncomfortable with the ball in his hands in transition.

On defense, there’s a chance Stretch might be a help-block merchant, as they kept going at him and he wasn’t really offering much resistance as a one-on-one defender. Davidson’s Skogman was beating him a lot in the post. Don’t get me wrong, he will still block Keyshawn Hall a time or two, but it seems like Amari Kelly might feast.

When Stretch is off the floor, 6’7 Darren Buchanan is their center. That would explain why Davidson was abusing the Revs on the offensive boards, which then turned into open second-chance threes.

When GW went into a 3-2 zone, Davidson got a semi-ok three that they missed. I don’t think they went back into it for the rest of the half.

The Revs occasionally got taken advantage of in transition, sometimes failing to get back on defense. At the end of the first half, they had a defensive miscommunication that lead to an easy bucket for Davidson with just seconds left before the half. GW wasn’t more than 20 seconds removed form a timeout on the other end.

GW games go by really fast since they foul their opponents so infrequently, it’s kind of odd. The games starts and all of a sudden, it’s the 16U timeout.

What does this mean for Mason?

This will probably be a lesser day for Keyshawn Hall scoring-wise, but he will get a ton of boards. Amari Kelly should be able to hit Stretch with his great post hook, I’m not sure he’ll be able to stop it.

I’m not sure if Mason will keep Kelly out there when Darren Buchanan is playing the 5 or if they’ll put Woody or Hall there.

Jared Billups and Darius Maddox are going to have their hands full with having to cover any of James Bishop, Maximus Edwards, and Garrett Johnson. Okojie covering Bishop would be a fun test for him.

Prediction: Mason wins 78-70. Both offenses do pretty well, Mason’s does a little bit better though since they grab more boards than GW.

The Patriots really need this win, you cannot drop three in a row in conference play.

Get excited, Mason Nation. If you can make it to the game, do it. I will be there.